Reaction: The worst kept secret in the world is confirmed - Sunderland Til I Die is coming back!

After months of rumours, the news we all knew was coming at some point has finally been confirmed - Sunderland Til I Die, the hit Netflix series produced by the excellent Fulwell73, will return to our screens soon after a number of years since their second season.

Speaking to ITV, Leo Pearlman gave some insight into what fans can expect - hinting that this will be the final installment, rounding things off with a happy ending:

This time we are purely focussing on the play-off win from last season.

There will be two episodes that look at the incredible finale to the season with the play-off semi-finals and the play- off win against Wycombe at Wembley.

We are ending Sunderland Till I Die on a high.

Whilst a release date hasn’t been confirmed, I’ve heard they’re targeting December time - so we haven’t got too long to wait til we get to see what’s in store.

As with previous installments, the Roker Rapport Podcast is expected to be heard across the two episodes as the story of our Play-Off success is told, so look out for that.

I know that a lot of fans struggled when watching the first two series of Sunderland Til I Die, but I absolutely loved being given that level of insight into the inner workings of the club, and the various characters who were on show.

In the first series it was then CEO Martin Bain who came off worst, and in the second it was probably Charlie Methven who hogged the majority of the camera, but it was the people of the city and the great Sunderland fans who gave the best representation of who we are to the watching eyes around the world.

From Joyce the chef to Peter the taxi driver, the love that we have for our football club poured out of each and every one of them, whilst the sideshow (or should that be shitshow?) of what was going on around the club at the time gave insight into why such a massive footballing institution had been allowed to fall on such hard times.

As we tumbled down the pyramid, owners and CEOs came and went, and by the end of the second series - which ended after the heartbreak of our Play-Off Final loss in 2018 - you’d have been forgiven for wondering if Sunderland were ever going to claw their way out of the hellscape that is League One.

Photo by Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images

The temptation to follow the club over the following three series must have been there for the Fulwell73 crew, but they were right to wait until Sunderland did indeed achieve promotion before coming back to capture the excitement and the elation of our rise back to the Championship.

Alex Neil may not be in favour with us now, but his role in rescuing our season and giving us that fantastic day in the capital in May cannot be understated. He was just one part of that eventual rise, though - the players, the team behind the scenes and the fans all played their part as we finally broke the Wembley hoodoo and gave the many fans in attendance one of their greatest memories as Sunderland supporters.

Being able to re-live all of that, through conversations with players, fans, media personalities and even our own Roker Rapport Podcast across the airwaves is something I’m genuinely relishing. Fulwell73 did a superb job of telling our story through the bad times, so I’m expecting more of the same this time around as we recall what I class as the best day of my Sunderland-supporting life.

Bring it on.